Here’s what your customers and prospects have: An endless amount of information available to them.
Here’s what your customers and prospects don’t have: Time to sift through it all to determine what is most valuable.
The power role in content marketing is the individual (or team) who aggregates mass amounts of subject-specific content, sifts through it all, and then delineates only the very best, most relevant and helpful information to his or her audience.
Here’s a great example: Ray William Johnson – an ideal example of personal branding. The RayWilliamJohnson channel is the most subscribed channel on YouTube today (4.6 million subscribers, 1.3 billion video views).
Millions of followers send Ray videos they believe are funny, weird or worthy of going viral. Ray (and his team) sift through all of this content, and delineate only the best three videos on his show “=3”.
Here’s why it works for Ray and others like him (ie: Toby Turner, “Cute, Win, Fail”): They’ve proven their expertise (by watching countless videos), earned their following (niche consistency), and people trust their opinions.
The Aggregate -> Sift -> Delineate model is the ultimate in content marketing power, providing generous social proof and solidifying your personal brand.
Become the resource that aggregates all of the options available, and then provide your audience with helpful tools, guides, roadmaps, “Top Ten’s” – anything that helps make the mountain of information digestible. In doing this, you become the go-to guy or girl your customers and prospects turn to as they move along their buyer’s journey.
One last tip: Don’t follow the Aggregate -> Sift -> Delineate model in private. You’ll have to put your findings out there in some fashion – blog, emails, social media, print, and actual human interface. Follow the Aggregate -> Sift -> Delineate model in your area of expertise, and then get in front of your customers and prospects with an integrated marketing campaign (see : Multi-Channel Marketing for Your Personal Brand to find out more on how to do this) to get the word out. Plant yourself firmly at the beginning of the sales cycle (see: Content Marketing for Your Personal Brand to find out why) and you, my friend, will hold the ultimate power of content.
